Things to do in Matera
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Matera
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months: warm walking weather, long evenings, everything open and crowds below the summer peak.
Spring starts: the Murgia is green and flower covered, but March can still be cold and wet on the plateau.
Summer heat, regularly 30 to 36 degrees. Hike at dawn or sunset, sights at midday, long lunches and cave siestas.
Quiet, mild to cool and at its most local, with low hotel prices and early darkness. Shorter site hours.
The quiet bargain: cold, emptiest Sassi and cheapest cave hotels, except the busy Christmas and Living Nativity period.
Worst window if you dislike heat and crowds and are not coming for the Bruna: peak prices for the hardest hiking.
What's on
- Festa della Madonna della Bruna 2 July
The year's defining festival: a papier-mache chariot is processed with knights, then ritually torn apart in Piazza Duomo, then fireworks.
- Ferragosto 15 August
Italian holiday peak: some family businesses close and beach clubs are at their busiest.
- Living Nativity in the Sassi December
Ticketed costumed re-enactment with hundreds of participants through the cave districts. Book ahead.
Best things to do in Matera
Sassi di Matera
Wander both cave districts at dawn and after dark, when the stone is lit and the day trip buses have gone.
Casa Noha
Start here: a 25 minute film on cave life and the evacuation that makes everything you see afterwards legible.
Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario
One furnished cave room where a family of six lived with their animals until 1956, told plainly and briefly.
Casa Grotta nei Sassi
The larger alternative cave house, with several rooms and an audio guide. Pick this or Vico Solitario, not both.
Santa Maria de Idris
A church carved into a rock pinnacle above Caveoso, with frescoes from the 14th to 17th centuries.
San Giovanni in Monterrone
The underground rock church you reach through Santa Maria de Idris, part of the same combined ticket visit.
San Pietro Barisano
The largest rock church in Matera, with an underground crypt below the main carved interior.
Palombaro Lungo
A vast hand carved cistern under the main piazza, seen on a short guided descent over walkways above the water.
Where to stay in Matera
Sasso Barisano
best all-round base, first trip
The most restored quarter, with the widest cave hotel choice, best restaurant density and gentlest walking to the Piano.
Sasso Caveoso
atmosphere, photographers, return visitors
Less restored and more labyrinthine, closer to the ravine and Murgia trailhead, but steeper and darker lanes at night.
The Civita
splurge with the definitive view
The fortified hill between the Sassi, crowned by the Cathedral. Very few properties, very high prices, maximum drama.
The Piano
practicality, families, drivers, longer stays
Flat upper town where Materans live, with conventional hotels, lifts and parking nearby, five minutes from the Sassi rim.
Think twice about
- Borgo La Martella, Venusio and the SS7 outskirts
Not a safety warning, an isolation warning: no evening life and no walk to the Sassi, so listings sold as Matera leave you driving or waiting for buses.
- Deep Caveoso cave units for anyone with mobility, balance or luggage constraints
The steepest, most polished lanes in the city, some reachable only on foot down stepped lanes that taxis cannot enter. Ask the host exactly how many steps.
- Station-immediate blocks around Matera Centrale and Via Don Luigi Sturzo
Not dangerous, just charmless traffic and bus station frontage, with none of the Piano cafe life or Sassi atmosphere for little saving.
Best restaurants in Matera
Vitantonio Lombardo
Matera's only starred restaurant, in a tufa cave, reworking Lucanian ingredients across tasting menus.
Baccanti
Contemporary Lucanian cooking in a vaulted cave or on a ravine terrace at dusk. Book the terrace in season.
Regiacorte
The view splurge in Caveoso, a refined resort restaurant whose terrace gives the Sassi panorama with dinner.
Trattoria del Caveoso
The traditional trattoria everyone agrees on: generous antipasti, cavatelli with cruschi and fave e cicoria.
La Lopa
A small cave trattoria strong on crapiata, fave e cicoria and the ferricelli pasta regulars single out.
Le Botteghe
Lucanian dishes reinterpreted with a lighter hand near San Pietro Barisano, with a good regional wine list.
Il Terrazzino
Honest Lucanian cooking in a 17th century cellar, plus a rooftop terrace panorama at approachable prices.
Dimora Ulmo
Refined regional dining in a restored historic house, the quiet luxury alternative to cave drama.
Best bars in Matera
Terrazza Cavaliere
The aperitivo pick: a spritz or Aglianico as the Sassi light up, Matera's cheapest luxury.
Zipa Café
A cave bar drink in Caveoso at golden hour, recommended for sunset as the southern Sassi starts its evening.
Outdoor things to do in Matera
Belvedere Murgia Timone
Cross the Gravina gorge on the Tibetan bridge for the postcard panorama back across to the Sassi at sunset.
Gravina di Matera
The longer, wilder gorge walk past caves including the Bat Cave, best done half a day with a local hiking guide.
Ciclovia dell'Acquedotto Pugliese
E-bike the plateau lanes and the aqueduct cycleway fringe, with farm and rock church stops on guided half days.
Crypt of the Original Sin
An 8th to 9th century fresco cycle of freshness in a ravine cave, visited in small timed groups by booking only.
Masseria Dragone
The winery that runs Crypt visits, where the combined ticket adds a tasting of its wine and Lucanian products.
Alberobello
The classic day trip for its UNESCO trulli. Go early, walk quieter Aia Piccola and be back in Matera for dinner.
Craco
A medieval hill town abandoned after landslides, now a guided only ghost town above clay badlands.
Volo dell'Angelo
A prone harness zipline between two cliff villages, two lines of about 1.4 km at up to 110 km per hour.
Best hotels in Matera
Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita
Eighteen vast candlelit cave suites with breakfast in a former rock church. The splurge benchmark for Matera.
Aquatio Cave Luxury Hotel & SPA
A five star cave resort built around a huge underground spa and pool, for luxury facilities not just a cave.
Palazzo Gattini
A noble palazzo by the Duomo with stone bathrooms and a rooftop terrace over Barisano. Palazzo luxury, not cave.
Locanda di San Martino
The mid range cave hotel sweet spot, with cave rooms around courtyards and an underground thermal pool below.
La Dimora di Metello
Design led cave suites 300 metres from the Cathedral, quieter and more contemporary than the larger cave hotels.
Corte San Pietro
Carved stone rooms around a courtyard with private entrances, praised breakfast and hosts on the Caveoso side.
Fra i Sassi Residence
Restored 17th century residence apartments with a terrace, the honest budget way to sleep inside the Sassi.
Ostello dei Sassi
Matera's main hostel, with dorms and family rooms plus a kitchenette. The genuine cheap way to sleep in the Sassi.
Is Matera expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €70 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €155 a person |
| Splurge | €400 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Casa Noha: a few days ahead
- Palombaro Lungo: a few days ahead
- Sassi di Matera guided walking tour: a few days ahead
- Gravina di Matera: a few days ahead
- Ciclovia dell'Acquedotto Pugliese: a few days ahead
- Crypt of the Original Sin: a few days ahead
- Masseria Dragone: a few days ahead
- Craco: a few days ahead
- Good mid range cave rooms go first in May, June, September and early October. Book the hotel before flights if Matera is the point.
- Vitantonio Lombardo needs weeks ahead in season. Baccanti, Regiacorte, Le Botteghe and Trattoria del Caveoso need days, especially weekends.
- Crypt of the Original Sin is booking only in small groups, days ahead, with check in at the winery 30 minutes early.
- Volo dell'Angelo is advance online booking only, seasonal and weather cancellable. Keep a Plan B day.
Is Matera safe?
- Low crime for visitors. The real risks are falls on wet polished stone, summer heat in the gorge with no water, and mountain roads after dark.
- Normal city awareness on buses, at the station and in Festa della Bruna crowds. Emergency number 112.
- Tap water is drinkable. Carry a bottle and refill rather than buying plastic on the trail.
Matera travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- A Sassi view terrace with a tout and photo menu: have the drink with the view, eat at a listed kitchen instead.
- Doing two cave houses, three rock churches and two underground sites in one day. One of each, done slowly, beats the full circuit.
- Ape or tuk tuk tours as a substitute for walking. They cannot enter the stepped lanes where Matera actually happens.
- Day tripping Matera without a night. The magic hours are dawn and after dark, when day trippers are absent.
Getting around Matera: public transport and more
- Walk the centre: Piano to Caveoso is 15 to 20 minutes, Barisano to Caveoso 10 minutes. There is no useful transit inside the Sassi.
- Wear shoes with grip. Polished limestone, steep stairs and wet stone are the classic Matera injury.
- Arrive via Bari Airport, about 65 km: airport bus about an hour, FAL train about 1 hour 40, or a booked transfer or car about an hour.
- Park in Piano rim car parks and walk in. Never drive into the Sassi limited traffic zone, camera fines arrive months later.
Who Matera suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Matera your trip
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